COVID-19 Resources
Early this year, we witnessed the outbreak of COVID-19 in China and in less than a few months, the virus has spread all over the globe propelling the World Health Organisation to declare it as a global pandemic.
As of April 13, 2020, there are 1,904,566 Total known cases, 118,459 Total deaths and 5,588 Latest deaths, the high number of infection and death has led most affected countries to put in place a national lockdown to try to halt the spread of the highly contagious virus.
MEWC is joining the International Community to play its part in the fight against the deadly virus, we will be using our website and social media to share resources, information about the virus.
Source: SAnews.gov.za
The Portfolio Committee on Women has called on households to stand together and help each other, especially women, children and disabled people who remain vulnerable to Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) during the 21-day lockdown period.
Source: IPS
As of April 8, there have been 1.5 million reported cases of coronavirus and over 83,000 deaths. Most of these deaths are of men. Italy, for example, has so far had 71 percent of all case deaths attributed to men while Spain, another major global hotspot, has seen 65 percent of all deaths being men.
Source: IPS
What is likely to be the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on developing economies? In the first of this two part article we looked at possible short term disruptions and discussed actions by the private sector and Governments.
These included mobilizing available public resources to augment what private citizens are doing to help the poor and vulnerable; working on some of the national macro-economic levers to sustain businesses; and discussing with international creditors about cancelling – or rescheduling – repayments, of some of their debts. This second part will look at possible medium to longer term developments.
Source: IPS
A United Nations report states that the fact that women make up 70 percent of the global health workforce puts them at greater risk of infection. This is a dated photo of Catherine a nurse at Jinja referral hospital,in Uganda.
Source: INSTITUTE FOR AFRICAN WOMEN IN LAW
The negative impact of the spread of COVID 19 has disproportionately affected economically disadvantaged women. The antecedent measures being put in place to contain it has put such women at greater risk of human rights abuses. In Uganda, images circulated on different social media of female street vendors being beaten by police after they disregarded bans on movement and utilization of public transport.[1] Such directives threatened many women's livelihood and ability to feed themselves and their families.
Human rights abuses while executing measures to curb COVID 19 have been noted in different countries[2] and Uganda isn't unique in this regard.[3]
Source: L'OBS
Le confinement provoqué par la pandémie de Covid-19 exacerbe les violences conjugales et dans les familles. En France, la violence domestique a cru d’un tiers en une semaine.
Source: Family Planning 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a major impact on the delivery of sexual and reproductive healthcare around the world, according to a survey of its national members conducted by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
Source: CNBC Africa
The COVID-19 pandemic is set to exacerbate pre-existing gender inequalities and the virus’s impact will disproportionately affect women, according to the United Nations Population Fund in Sudan.
Source: Global Citizen
Women and girls are disproportionately at risk of domestic violence, financial insecurity, and more.
Source: IPS
A little over half of women across the globe are able to freely make choices about their sexual and reproductive health, according to a latest report based on data from 57 countries.
Source: UNFPA
Disease outbreaks affect women and men differently, and pandemics make existing inequalities for women and girls and discrimination of other marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities and those in extreme poverty, worse. This needs to be considered, given the different impacts surrounding detection and access to treatment for women and men.
Women represent 70 percent of the health and social sector workforce globally and special attention should be given to how their work environment may expose them to discrimination, as well as thinking about their sexual and reproductive health and psychosocial needs as frontline health workers.
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